Nairobi, Kenya, 14 Feb 2012, (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) – The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister and Chairman, Partners in Population Development (PPD), Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad today addressed a gathering here on the occasion of Re-Launch of Family Planning Campaign of Government of Kenya during the ongoing three day meeting of the Executive Committee of PPD.

The Minister said India growing population is a matter of great concern and poses several challenges on the economic, environmental and development fronts. He noted that the world population stands today at 7 billion plus. Africa and India together constitute more than 2.3 billion, which is roughly one third of the entire world population. Kenya alone has approximately 41 million people and like India, its population is very young and growing rapidly.

Mr. Azad said India has been consistently making efforts towards improving health and reducing fertility for sustainable development ever since the launch of the world’s first national program emphasizing family planning for reducing birth rates in 1952. Since then, the Indian family planning program has evolved and has recently been repositioned to not only achieve population stabilization but also to promote reproductive health and reduce maternal mortality, infant & child mortality and morbidity. The National Population Policy, since 2000, places emphasis on reducing the unmet needs for family planning, improvement of health care infrastructure and attain Population Stabilization by the year 2045.

According to the recently conducted Census of India, the population now stands at 1.21 billion. A positive sign emerging from the Census shows that the decadal growth rate has come down sharply to 17.64 in the years’ 2001 to 2011 as against 21.54 between 1991 to 2001. There has been a steady decline in Total Fertility Rate. 14 States and Union Territories out of 35 have already achieved the replacement fertility level of 2.1.

The focus in India has been to make special efforts to generate awareness and persuade people to have small family sizes for the betterment of the health of the mother, child and the whole family. For this, focus is on providing fixed day family planning services at health facilities and easier access to contraceptives. “We have now launched a new initiative under which, contraceptives, both male and female, shall be delivered free of cost and door to door by the community health workers in high focus areas,” Mr. Azad said.

To reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), the Government has taken a number of initiatives in the last 5 years to facilitate institutional deliveries and newborn care, which have seen institutional deliveries increase from 47% to 72%. The national programme contributed to the further decline of the MMR from 254 in 2004-06 to 212 in 2007-09 and IMR from 58 in 2005 to 47 in 2010.

India was re-elected as the Chairperson of Partners in Population Development (PPD) in November 2011 for a three-year term.

Peace Through Tourism

How Travel & Tourism Can Help Restore the Balance in the Emerging New World Order

"The travel & tourism buzzword of the 21st century will be the search for balance."

That forecast was made by Imtiaz Muqbil, Executive Editor, Travel Impact Newswire, in the monthly strategic intelligence publication of PATA, the Pacific Asia Travel Association, way back in February 1999. Today, it is proving spot-on as the word "balance" resonates across all industry sectors.

Travel industry conferences seeking a speaker who can offer some unique historical hindsight, unconventional foresight and thought-provoking insight on how to rebuild and restore the balance in Asia Pacific travel & tourism can email Imtiaz Muqbil by clicking here.

There Can Be No Sustainability Without Spirituality

The New World Order will be dominated by a resurgence of spirituality.

Imtiaz Muqbil claims to be the world's only travel journalist to have visited the Holy Spots of all the major world religions -- Lumbhini, Bodhgaya, Varanasi, Nalanda, Jerusalem, Vatican City, Amritsar, Makkah, Madinah, Najaf and Karbala, as well as religious spots such as Angkor Wat, Bagan, Shwedagon Pagoda, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Temple of The Tooth, Somnath Temple, Samarkand, Bukhara and many other great mosques, shrines, temples and cathedrals worldwide.

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Secrets of Thailand's Tourism Success

Why the Amazing Kingdom is notching up record-breaking arrivals, and what challenges it faces next

The Thai tourism industry has become by far the Kingdom's most successful service sector, one of its leading job-creators and foreign exchange-earners. Behind this success lies a fascinating history of great branding campaigns, policy and regulatory changes, budgetary bunfights, strategic thinking and influence of Royal events.

But this success has now bred a new set of management challenges that may be more difficult to overcome.

Travel Impact Newswire Executive Editor Imtiaz Muqbil has been monitoring the pulse of the Thai travel industry full-time since 1981. Industry conferences and management meetings wishing to benefit from a treasure trove of insights and hindsights on one of the world's great tourism success stories can drop an email here: imtiaz@travel-impact-newswire.com.

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The Rise of the Whistle-Blowers

For 15 years (January 1997-July 2012), Imtiaz Muqbil penned a hard-hitting fortnightly column called “Soul-Searching” in the so-called “newspaper you can trust”. In July 2012, the column was gagged, with no explanation.

Over the years, four columns had explicitly forecast the rise of whistle-blowers -- a prediction now coming 100% true. Read the four columns by clicking on the links below.

Too Bad Your Ad Is Not in This Spot

Space available for unique ads that demonstrate commitment to helping physically-challenged people, building global peace, improving social and cultural cohesion, providing opportunities for the under-privileged, alleviating poverty and combatting global injustice & corruption.

If your product is not meeting any of the above goals, please advertise elsewhere.

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News Vs Noise

A Unique Course for Travel & Tourism Communicators In The Internet Era

By far the vast majority of media communications in the travel industry is boring, banal and bland. The same way it has been for the last 30 years.

Travel Impact Newswire Executive Editor Imtiaz Muqbil has designed a special communications course to help upgrade both the context and the content of industry media material, and make it more interesting, readable and, most important, relevant.